Is Twitter for the Birds? The Young and the Restless Don’t Think So

Abstract

This chapter addresses the relevance and identifies the affordances of social media for civic education. Most people use social media, including nearly all young people (Pew, 2018; Pew, 2015). Social media also functions as a place of civic participation and has affordances which support online and offline civic learning and engagement. Social media users are co-creators and co-curators of content, making social media an active and interactive space. Social media can disrupt or support hegemonic structures, maintaining or challenging power. In short, social media is where people, particularly youth and people in power, are, and it is a space in which to practice civic skills in vivo.